Hollow Victory
by Xexar
Summary: Just a little one-shot of Rachel, Finn, and Jesse after Regionals. I guess I needed closure and this is it.


I do not own Glee. This is my first fanfic...so I hope it's okay. I'm a huge St. Berry shipper, but this just came to me as a scene I'd have liked with them in the hallway after the announcement of the winner at Regionals and Rachel and Finn dealing with Finn growing a back bone and telling her he loved her.

"I'm not ready," she blurted out.

Finn looked down at his dark haired goddess and smiled, although what he really wanted to do was scream. "Okay, I can wait," he gave her his goofy half-smile, "I'd wait for you forever, Rachel."

They had just sung their hearts out at Regionals and lost. Rachel still wasn't sure how that had happened. It was true that the choreography for Vocal Adrenaline was amazing and that Jesse had song the vocals capably...but they were missing something that New Directions had. Heart, soul, conscience.

He reached a hand out to touch her face.

Rachel smiled shyly and backed away. "L-look, Finn I..." she pressed her lips together and swallowed hard. "Look, I liked you for a long time. But you dumped me and I moved on to someone new," she looked up at him with bruised brown eyes.

"I know, Rache, and I know I hurt you too. And I'm sorry. I did a lot of dumb stuff," Finn took a step back. The last couple months had been full of mistakes and misunderstandings and growing up.

"I'm not blaming you for anything, but you need to give me some space. I l-love Jesse," she admitted.

Finn felt his face crumple in pain, hearing that she still loved the creep who'd infiltrated ND, lied to Rachel, gotten her to love him, and then humiliated her in the worst ways possible. He didn't think there could be anything worse than that, but then he looked up. And there was the jackass himself looking at them, his face full of triumph.

"Rache-" he started, trying to warn her.

"No Finn, I really did like you. But Jesse...with Jesse it was all so easy. We could really talk about things." She looked up him accusingly. "And he really listened to me."

"Uh, yeah, sorry. Uh, Rache?" Finn was uncomfortable with all the feeling talk. Usually he just told Quinn or Rachel that he really liked them and they were happy with that. But he didn't want her to say anything that she'd regret in front of Jesse.

"Yes, Finn?" Rachel sighed. "So, maybe, in the future we can try things again. But for now, I really think what I need to do is nurse my broken heart."

"Rachel?" Jesse said. He watched as she froze. Before she turned, he gave Finn a gloating smirk.

Gah, he hated that guy. He just wanted to smash his face in. He was watching Rachel so he saw her mouth widen in a 'oh' of horror, then the look of pained hope that crossed her face, and finally the mask of indifference as she turned around.

"Jesse," she replied, her voice steady. "How..." she pursed her lips as if she needed to search for an adequate word, "interesting...to see you. Did you come to rub my face in our unfortunate defeat at your hands?"

"No, Rachel, I came to apologize. I'm don't know what came over me these last couple weeks but I have no behaved well in regards to you." He walked over to join them, one curl bobbing softly with his strides.

"Oh, well..." Rachel's face crumpled and her eyes filled with tears. "I can't do this..." and she started at a run for the ladies room.

"Listen Jackass, you forget what you heard and you take yourself back to your uptight school and your uptight girls and you leave Rachel, New Directions, and McKinley the hell alone," Finn all but threatened.

"Yeah? Or what, meat head?" Jesse smirked some more, enjoying the dumb jocks look of outrage as he realized he had nothing he was willing to threaten Jesse with.

Finn grinned tightly as he thought of one thing he might have on Jesse. It would depend on how deeply the evil ran over at Carmel High. "Or I'll tell Rachel's mom what you did to her. I'm pretty sure that egging her daughter wasn't part of her plan."

Expression blank with surprise, the Neanderthal had a brain after all, Jesse mused. "I would rather you not do that," he said, nodding.

"Yeah, well, you go crawl back under your rock, Jesse. Don't let me catch you sniffing around Rachel or anyone else from Glee."

"Hudson? I really did love her. It wasn't all an act," Jesse said as he turned away.

"I know," Finn admitted.

"And the eggs...that was going a little far. But the other stuff? From what I've heard, I was just taking a page out of your book, Hudson."

Finn had the good grace to look ashamed. "You're right. I have treated Rachel like crap. But the difference between me and you is that I learned something and I won't do it again. Can you say the same?"

Jesse had never felt so conflicted in his life. What he really wanted right now was to knock the bigger boy over and run after Rachel and make her forgive him. But what Hudson was saying...well, he wasn't sure if he could say that he wouldn't hurt Rachel again.

When Jesse remained silent, Finn curled his lip with disgust. "I didn't think so."

"I wouldn't want to hurt her. I never wanted to hurt her," Jesse said softly. He looked down. "I'm not even sure why I did it...except I was stupid and did what my team expected rather than be the person that she thought I was."

Finn nodded as if he understood.

Jesse sighed, frustrated. "Look, I know you can't understand that, Hudson. I'm sure it's always been easy for you. But Shelby asked me to help her know her daughter...it seemed like a noble thing to do..." he shrugged as his voice trailed off.

"I did that too, Jesse. I chose football over Rachel," he grinned. "Hell, Puck is smarter than the two of us put together," he laughed deprecatingly, "Puck is the only one who ever picked Rachel."

"What in the hell are you talking about?" Jesse was looking at Finn like he'd gone around the bend.

"There was a time when the football coach made us choose. And I picked football. Puck picked Rachel," Finn's smile was genuine. "Thank God he's in love with Quinn or I'd have no chance."

"Puck, huh? I'm getting lessons from Puck? I almost hope that I never see anyone from McKinley High again," Jesse sounded tortured but then he laughed bitterly. "Who'd have thought Puck was the smart one?"

Finn almost felt friendly towards Jesse. "Yeah, I know."

"Hudson, you take care of my girl for me. I'll know if you hurt her again. And if you do, I won't stay away," Jesse warned. He felt like his soul was being ripped out; he was going to do what Finn asked and leave Rachel and New Directions alone. He was going to let her heal and eventually forget about him.

"I'm not your girl, Jesse St. James," he heard from behind him.

His eyes closed. "To me you are, Rachel. To me...you'll always be my girl," he opened his eyes and looked his fill of her. Her beautiful, soft brown hair, crushed velvet eyes, and sweet pink mouth. He leaned in and kissed her cheek softly. "I love you, Rachel Berry. I hope someday you can forgive me."

"I love you too, Jesse St. James. And I hope that someday that I'll be able to forgive you," she smiled softly, sweetly up at him. "But not today."

Jesse nodded. His heart lurched when Rachel walked over to Finn and she took his hand then looked over at him defiantly. Normally, he would flash some version of his 'show face' and be certain that he could fool whoever he wanted to fool. But he didn't think he could fool Rachel anymore. So, he just smirked sadly and waved good-bye to his former team mates. He'd never thought victory could be so hollow.

Hope you liked it.


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